


Eternal

by Dragon_of_Dreams



Series: Linked Universe Gift Exchange 2020 [3]
Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eternal Cycle, Gen, LU Valentine's Gift Exchange 2020, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), Regrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-22
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:27:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22838581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragon_of_Dreams/pseuds/Dragon_of_Dreams
Summary: Time felt the pride and shame of learning that one of the chosen heroes is his descendant by blood. Within his heart he felt the regret that came with carrying the burden of a hero.He did not expect for Sky and Wind to speak to him about regret.
Relationships: Time & Sky & Wind (Linked Universe), Time & Twilight (Linked Universe)
Series: Linked Universe Gift Exchange 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1765594
Comments: 10
Kudos: 148





	Eternal

**Author's Note:**

  * For [EstaJay](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EstaJay/gifts).



> Backup gift for Linked Universe's Gift Exchange. Hope you enjoy it.

There was a paradoxical wave of feelings when Time learned that Twilight was his descendant. Proud. For having a child of his own. Shame. For learning that Twilight was raised without a family bloodline to call his own. Proud. For passing down the bloodline of the hero to protect a new generation. Shame. For allowing said hero to live in a world he had to save on his own burdened shoulders.

Pride. Shame. Pride. Shame. These two emotions swung like a pendulum in his heart, ticking to a clock of fate that led only to a single stream of time: to his own death and Twilight’s existence.

All he could do now was to carry the watch of the night. Restless his mind was as his heart, thinking about the possible futures leading his future fatherhood with Malon’s child and the eventual birth of Twilight.

_From what we’ve come to know of each other, we are in fact related, not only by spirit but blood. Do you have any doubt?_

_No. Without a doubt._

Twilight’s instant assurance on their bloodline relieved him, but also brought him questions. How did the pup know about him? _What_ did he know about him? Did he know him as a hero? Or simply a rancher living a normal life?

These were the questions he wanted to ask but he knew he’d be meddling with time itself should he not like his eventual fate. That’s if Twilight knew… 

So Time carried the burden of fate in his heart.

The other boys who carried the spirit much like his own slept on their own beds. Some wearing restlessness in the wrinkles of their faces. Sleep never came easy for any of them. Not even to Sky, the hero who found peace through the thoughts of his own homeland and his Sun. Peace found him during the day, but nightmares crawled from the darkness of the night.

This night was one of such nights. The young man from the sky lifted himself from his bedroll. He rubbed his face, most likely covered in sweat from the heat of the battle his mind fought within.

“Are you okay, Sky?”

Time approached him, helping clean up the sweat wrinkling up Sky’s face. Eventually Sky’s answer came in form of a nod, looking not at Time but at the hands laying down in front of him.

“Need to talk?”

After taking a breath, Sky nodded, now facing the older member of the group. “Yes, thank you.”

“Alright, let’s go for a walk.”

Time helped lift Sky from the ground, untangling him from the bedroll and the bedsheets that once covered him. Time woke the wolf by Wind’s side, knowing full well it was Twilight. Time told the pup to cover the watch while he and Sky were gone.

“You seem to trust that wolf a lot,” Sky said, a smile curving up his lips. “I’m glad we’re friends with him.”

Time smiled. _There’s a lot more than you don’t know._

Time led Sky to the shores of his Lake Hylia. He admired the moonlight’s reflection on the pristine waters of the lake despite the moon that brought its light. The two men sat down, their feet drenching in the waters.

“Alright,” Time started. “Since you needed a talk, tell me what’s on your mind.”

Sky looked back to the group. Time followed his glance, eyes meeting towards and Twilight watching over them as their guardian.

“Have you ever wondered about us?”

 _Us?_ Time frowned. He definitely had questions, how every single one of them bore the name Link and shared the spirit of the hero, but he didn’t bring questions of its origin. “Continue.”

“I think I know what caused it.”

Time furrowed his eyebrows. He had long suspected Sky among the first in Hyrule’s history, coming from a time where the founding of its kingdom was non-existent. 

“I may not have fought Ganon,” Sky continued. “But I fought a demon just as terrifying. His name was Demise. He… he brought a curse upon us.”

Time sighed. Then he nodded. “Do you know what this curse is?”

“The curse was,” Sky took a deep breath, “that those with the blood of the goddess and the spirit of the hero will be eternally reborn alongside with Demise’s hatred. Ganon.

“My nightmare had been of a hero. A hero who failed to defeat the darkness and the land was brought to ruin. And yet… I never lost hope.”

Time’s eye widened. How a hero like Sky still found hope despite the eventual downfall of his future and his eventual kingdom was beyond him. But he didn’t speak.

“Even after the hero’s defeat, I feel that another rose in his place,” Sky said. His eyes seemed to lock on a certain someone, but Time couldn’t tell. “The kingdom will not go down as long as the spirit rises back to take its place. That’s what Zelda… Hylia… sent me to do. To forge an unbreakable spirit to fight evil.

“Even though I failed to prevent the curse, I accept that responsibility. I want to be able to keep defending the future of my land, of our kingdom. Even if only in spirit.”

“You have no regrets about Demise’s curse?”

“As long as a hero knocks back his hatred over and over? No regrets.”

Time frowned. He didn’t know how much the spirit of the hero carried from one person to another. They all were Link, that much he knew, and they all were heroes bound to protect Hyrule when the need arose. But at the same time he could tell there was as much as an individual within each person, their personalities as different as they could be. They all were human.

Such as Twilight. His own blood.

The two men lifted their heads as they heard another voice, followed by a growl. Time chuckled as he heard Wind’s cries towards Twilight.

“Wolfie, calm down, calm down!” the young hero hushed him, tugging his blue tunic back from Twilight’s jaws carefully. “Please, let go. Don’t wanna wake everyone up.”

“What’s the matter with you two?” Time called out. Twilight stopped pulling, releasing Wind’s tunic and turned to him, blue eyes speaking, _trying to take care of this child._

“Hi, Time! Hi, Sky!” Wind waved, letting out a huge nervous grin. “Can I join you guys?”

“Sure!” Sky said. “We were talking about nightmares, did you have one?”

“Um…” Wind sat down next to Time, scratching the back of his head as he looked up to his hero of legend. “I couldn’t help but overhear the conversation since I woke up,” he whispered. “You reminded me of something.”

The Hero of Time and the Chosen Hero now payed attention to the youngest, listening to him as a hero who experienced much of the world as the rest. Time knew this better than anyone, having to go through the journey as a hero himself as a child. With that experience came a large regret—of the land not remembering the hero that spared them from disaster.

“You know how I live on the Great Sea, right?” Time and Sky nodded. “The kingdom of Hyrule was gone.”

Again, a nod. Wind had told them of the fate of the kingdom once they had arrived to Wind’s home, far from the expectations of the others. Wind was the only one without the land of Hyrule beneath his feet.

“What if I told you guys that I explored the sea with the last King of Hyrule?”

“Really?” Sky asked. Time’s widened eye carried the same question, but shouldn’t have been surprised given his experience.

“Tell us more about him,” Time said.

“I miss him,” Wind said. “He was a boat when I met him, named the King of Red Lions. But that’s not what I wanted to talk about. I want to talk about his regrets.”

The trio of heroes glanced back at the waters of reflection. Time could hear the echoes of a long-forgotten melody deep within the lake: a serenade that whispered him once of a river’s flow and the water’s surface reflecting growth.

“The king once said that he was the same as Ganondorf.”

 _No. He wasn’t._ Time inwardly growled. He couldn’t imagine anyone with a heart filled as much hatred as the King of Evil, let alone the King of Hyrule himself, despite all the flaws that he had faced meeting the king of his time.

“I know what you’re thinking.” Wind laughed. “How can a king of Hyrule compare himself with the King of Evil? Well…” His voice lost his giggling energy, now speaking in low whispers. “They were a lot more similar than you think.”

The young boy spoke of Ganondorf not as a monster, but as a man who suffered a harsh life in the desert, jealous of the winds that brought Hyrule life. Ganondorf wanted to wish back the kingdom of Hyrule, bring the land that once flourished with life for his people.

Time knew how much that was a lie. When he saw Ganondorf as an adult the monstrous man had brought nothing but the winds of death.

“And did you believe him?” Time asked.

“Part of me did,” Wind admitted. “But he was corrupted with lust of power. I felt it. I don’t think his intentions were bad, not at first, but couldn’t help himself. The king was the same way. At least when it came to his kingdom.”

Wind spoke of the king’s regrets, regretting his past and turning back to his kingdom, bound to it as a ghost. Not unlike Ganondorf, wishing back the kingdom back to its former glory.

“He faced those regrets,” Wind said, dark eyes locking directly with Time. “He told me that despite there being nothing left for me I must still look forward and walk a path of hope, trusting that it will sustain me when darkness comes. I want you two to do the same.

“I may have not heard everything, but please don’t linger on those regrets.”

Time turned back to his pup, now resting beside Wild’s limping body on the ground. A resemblance of a bloodline ran through their veins as Time thought of their future. He stood up, lifting Sky and Wind from the shores.

“Are we ready to come back?”

Sky and Wind nodded. The two younger members walked back to the camp. Time followed behind, his heart still swinging the pendulum as the clock of history ticked beneath his footsteps.

One day he will learn to let these thoughts go. Just like how Sky and Wind moved on.


End file.
